St Martin, Ryarsh, Kent - a photo on Flickriver

Once upon a time, Ryarsh was a quiet out of the way place, little visited, and only the high road on the edge of parish meant that anyone passed through it at all.

In the 21st century, the M20, all eight lanes of it, separate the church from the village, so that Ryarsh is nearer to Leybourne than to its own village.

Church lane turns off the "main" road before the road passes under the motorway, and heads out across the fields to the church. We were confronted by a huge reversing tractor that inched backwards towards a gravel track, so we would admire the loamy landscape on both sides.

The lane ends at a small car park with the church beyond through an arch. To all intents and purposes, its a rural church, so stood a good chance of being open?

No.

A car had just left, maybe that had been the wardens leaving after cleaning the church prior to the Sunday service, or it could have been the farmer heading to market.

The grey and overcast weather matched my mood, Jools walked to the porch and tried the door. It was locked, and no details of keyholder.

I walked round the church, took shots of the Normal stonework, some of the gravestones, and that was that.

This shot shows some unusual grave markers, one of several in dark stone with a stylised cross on the reverse side. Not seen this design before in Kent.

Onto the next target.

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An attractive church which stands a long way from its (later) village. The building is of Norman date and the north wall of the nave displays some good herringbone masonry and a tiny round-headed window above. Inside there is an unusual Norman pillar piscina on the south side of the chancel. A south aisle was added in the fifteenth century and has a nicely proportioned gabled east end. The rood loft staircase is still visible inside as are the responds of the eastern triplet of Norman windows, replaced by the present east window in the Perpendicular period. The south aisle roof is dated and obviously indicates a replacement after damage in the eighteenth century, whilst other good quality woodwork includes a Jacobean pulpit.

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Ryarsh

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RYARSH
SOUTHWARD from Birling lies Ryarsh, commonly called Rash. In Domesday it is called Riesce, and in the Textus Roffensis, REIERSCE.

THE PARISH of Ryarsh is rather an unfrequented place, more healthy than it is either pleasant or fer tile. It is in length about two miles, but in breadth it is very narrow. The water, called Addington brook, crosses the center of the parish eastward, beyond which it extends southward up to the high road from London through Wrotham to Maidstone, and beyond it about half a mile to Fartherwell, Mr. Oliver Golding's, situated at the boundary of the parish, within a very small distance from Ofham-street. The village stands close on the north side of the above brook, with the church about a quarter of a mile eastward from it, almost adjoining to Leyborne parish, hence the ground rises northward, where, at near a mile's distance, is another hamlet, called Ryarsh likewise, which is larger than the former village. The soil between the two villages is a deep unfertile sand, but on the rising ground southward of the turnpike road it borders much upon the quarry rock.

THIS MANOR in the time of the Conqueror, was part of the possessions of Odo, bishop of Baieux, the king's half-brother, under the general title of whose lands it is thus entered in the book of Domesday.

The same Hugh (de Port) holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Riesce. It was taxed at two sulings and an half. The arable land is five carucates. In demesne there are two, and ten villeins, with two borderers, having three carucates. There is a church and ten servants, and a mill of ten shillings, and nine acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of five hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth eight pounds, when he received it one hundred shillings, now six pounds. Alured held it of king Edward.

On the disgrace of the bishop of Baieux, about the year 1084, his lands and possessions were seized on by the king, and confiscated to his use. Soon after which this manor seems to have been granted to the family of Crescie, one of whom is mentioned in the Battle Abbey Roll, as surviving after the battle of Hastings.

William de Crescie possessed this manor in the reign of king John, in the 5th year of which reign, he obtained a charter of liberties in Ryarsh and Birling; his descendant, Hugh de Crescie, died in the 47th year of king Henry III. without issue, and Stephen de Crescie, his brother, became as his heir entitled to this manor. At the latter end of the next reign of king Edward I. John de Mowbray held it, as appears by antient court rolls of the reign of king Edward II. as parcel of the barony of Bedford. (fn. 1)

Being afterwards discontented concerning some part of his wife's inheritance, (she was Aliva, daughter and coheir of William de Brewes) being kept from him, he, with other great men, took up arms, but being defeated at the battle of Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, in the 15th year of king Edward II. he was, there taken prisoner, and carried to York, where he was hanged, and his estates confiscated to the crown.

His descendants were summoned to parliament as lords Mowbray, of Axkolme, (fn. 2) one of them John lord Mowbray, was created earl of Nottingham on the day of king Richard the IId.'s coronation, with this special clause in the charter of his creation. That all his lands and tenements, of which he was then possessed, or should afterwards purchase, should be held sub honore comitali, and as parcel of his earldom. He enjoyed this honor only till the 18th year of his age, and then died in the 6th year of that reign, and was buried in the church of the Carmelites, near Fleetstreet, London.

¶He was succeeded by Thomas, his brother, who two days afterwards was advanced to the dignity of Earl of Nottingham, per cincturam gladii, and by patent in the 9th year of the above reign, anno 1385. He had granted to him the title and office of earl marshal of England, being the first earl marshal of England, for before they were only marshals, and stood then in such favor with the king, that, acknowledging his just and hereditary title to bear for his crest, A golden leopard, with a white label, which of right belonged to the king's eldest son, he by his letters patent granted to him and his heirs, authority to bear The golden leopard for his crest, with a coronet of silver about his neck, instead of the label. (fn. 3) Of which office he had a confirmation in the 20th year of it, with a union of the office of marshal in the courts of king's bench and exchequer, with other privileges annexed to them, and that he and his heirs male, by reason of their office of earl marshal, should bear a golden truncheon enamelled with black at each end, having at the upper end of it the king's arms, and at the lower end their own arms. And next year the king advanced him to the title of duke of Norfolk, his grandmother Margaret, daughter and heir of Tho mas of Brotherton, being the same day created duchess of Norfolk for life.

RYARSH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and deanry of Malling.

The church, which is dedicated to St. Martin, is a small building, with a tower steeple, having nothing remarkable in it.

This church was part of the possessions of the priory of Merton, in Surry, as early as the beginning of the reign of king Henry III. in the 22d year of which reign, anno 1237, an assise was taken before the king's justices, concerning the last presentation to this church of Reyers, at the instance of Henry, prior of Merton, against John de Curtenay, and Matilda his wife; when it appeared, that the prior and convent had presented in the time of peace, master Peter de Sausintone to this church, whom the bishop accordingly admitted and instituted. Upon which the prior recovered his seisin of it, &c. and he had his writ to the archdeacon of Rochester; the see being then vacant, for him to admit a sit parson, &c.

There is frequent expression made in antient records of Tempore Pacis, and Tempore belli aut Guerræ, which means thus: Tempore Pacis is when the courts of justice are open, and the judges and ministers of justice free to protect men from wrong and violence, and distribute justice. Tempore Belli is when by invasion, insurrection, or rebellion, &c. the peaceable course of justice is disturbed, and the courts of justice are, as it were, shut up, and military law of course takes place. (fn. 5)

Richard, bishop of Rochester, in the year 1242, appropriated this church to the church of St. Mary of Merton, and the canons there, to the building and maintaining of their church and buildings; and he decreed, that the canons should have appropriated to them all tithes late of sheaves, and the moiety of the tithe of hay, and the chief messuage of the church, together with the buildings, and the grove, the alder bed, and the meadow, and the rents of assise, except the annual rent of four-pence, from Hugh de Catesby, and his heirs, which the bishop assigned to the vicar.

And he decreed, that the vicar and his successors, should have the house usually assigned to the priest, with its territory, and the altarage, and all the arable land belonging to the church; so that the canons should not take, in the name of tithe, any thing arising from the produce of the land, or messuage aforesaid; and further, that the vicar should receive yearly of the canons the sum of forty-eight shillings; and lastly, that he should sustain all ordinary burthens; this grant being made during the vacancy of the church, by the resignation of Andrew de Winton, rector of it, into the bishop's hands, &c.

The rector and vicar of this parish, in the year 1448, made their petition to the bishop of Rochester, that the feast of the dedication of this parish church on the feast of St. Lambert, frequently happening in the Ember days, and in the time of harvest, hindered it from being kept with due solemnity and reverence; therefore, in compliance with their request, he changed it to the feast of the Translation of St. Martin, in summer, to be kept on the 4th day of June; on which he decreed it to be celebrated yearly for the future.

The church of Ryarsh, and the advowson of the vicarage, remained part of the possessions of the priory of Merton till the dissolution of it in the reign of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered into the king's hands.

¶In the year 1608, the advowson of the vicarage belonged to Thomas Watton, esq. of Addington, whose descendant Edmund Watton, esq. of Addington, leaving an only daughter and heir, she carried it in marriage, first to Leonard, Bartholomew, esq. and secondly to Sir Roger Twisden, bart. both of whom she survived; and dying in 1775, it came to her son by her first husband, Leonard Bartholomew, esq. of Addington, who is the present patron of it.

The vicarage is a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of forty pounds, the yearly tenths of which are seventeen shillings.

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol4/pp488-496

Taken on: January 22, 2022

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